Biobased business: After international trade of biofuels, solid biomass flourishes.
Same risks, same solutions?
Jinke van Dam , Sergio Ugarte , Laetitia Ouillet
Bio-based businesses keep steadily moving towards the creation of new food, industrial and energy products. Various biomass streams, from different origin, and going through a variety of conversion routes, cause different levels of environmental and social impacts. Pressure on arable land, peat lands, forested regions, and water use is amounting high. Labour and property rights may be severely endangered in countries of biomass origin, especially in those countries with weak law enforcement instruments or with a poor track record on these issues. Key aspect for further development and upscale of these bio-based businesses is to implementat proper sustainability proofs. The proof of biomass sustainability gives confidence to consumers, and allows for the implementation of supporting policies by States.
The European Union requires sustainability proof for biofuels, but not for solid biomass. This policy gap resulted in the fact that some Member States have defined their own –but differing- biomass sustainability obligation. Also some of the largest energy utilities have defined their own voluntary programs. While trade in solid biomass is growing and feedstock competition with second-generation biofuels is upcoming there is an urgent need for a more comprehensive and more standardised approach to sustainability criteria for solid biomass.
Read more Fall Newsletter 2011 sustainability solid biomass final (pdf)
Our expertise
SQ experts, Jinke van Dam, Sergio Ugarte and Laetitia Ouillet have contributed significantly to the research of bioenergy and electricity sector business internationally, They have participated in the development of sustainability criteria and its implementation and have proposed recommendations for further harmonization and improvement of European biomass certification systems. They furthermore have provided advice to global private energy companies in setting up their biomass strategies for their businesses in Europe, the United States of America and other parts of the world.
We work on:
• Helping companies to define their long term strategy development for sustainable bioenergy production and trade
• Positioning companies in the market; linking actors (region, ports, suppliers, end-users) in development of a business approach
• Providing support in further development of policy guidelines and regulations;
• Impact assessments of bioenergy chains;
• Sustainability certification strategy roadmaps;
• International screening of biomass sourcing (potential, economics, conversion options)